Iran accuses Israel of attacks on scientists

Iran has accused Israel of attacks on two Iranian nuclear scientists.

One of the scientists was killed and another injured Monday in two separate attacks in Tehran. The government of Iran immediately blamed the CIA and the Mossad—the intelligence agencies for the United States and Israel—for the bombing attacks, which reportedly were carried out by men on motorcycles.

Iranian state television blamed “Zionist agents,” according to reports.

Majid Shahriari, who was killed, and Fereydoon Abbasi Davani, who was injured in the attacks, were physics lecturers at Tehran’s Shahid Beheshti University; the attacks took place near the university. The scientists were senior figures in Iran’s nuclear program, according to reports.

“The Zionist regime this time shed the blood of university professor Dr. Majid Shahriari to curb Iran’s progress,” the office of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a statement posted on its website, according to the French news agency AFP.

Shahriari reportedly was working on a nuclear project for Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency.

The attacks come just days after Iran said its first nuclear plant was fully loaded with fuel rods and awaiting several tests before going online for the first time.